Education

Pasco School Superintendent Kurt Browning is standing behind his decision to order the removal of rainbow-colored “Safe Space” stickers throughout the school district.

He also has made it known that the school system does not condone the practice of its personnel engaging in private, personal conversations with students.

Browning made those positions clear — after a number of public speakers addressed the ‘Safe Space’ issue — during the Pasco County School Board’s Sept. 12 meeting.

The stickers came about because several organizations and school districts began posting stickers “to let students know they could talk to a trusted adult, if they had a sensitive topic they needed to discuss,” according to Steve Hegarty, public information officer for the school district.

“Clearly, it included LGBTQ youth, but is not limited to them,” Hegarty explained, via email. “Rather than posting stickers that promoted one organization or another, we created our own with the district logo,” Hegarty said.

Browning sent out an email to district staff on Sept. 1 alerting them the district would no longer be designating safe spaces and the stickers would be removed.

Several speakers appeared before the school board, expressing their concerns about that decision.

Heather Adams, who said she has been an educator for 13 years, told board members: “I rise today in support of the Safe Space stickers.

“I believe that our schools should foster diversity, inclusion and acceptance. Safe Space stickers are an infinitesimally small measure that let all of our children know that they are welcome in our classrooms.

“They are not symbols designed to disenfranchise any part of a group of students who may dislike what the rainbow symbol stands for. Those stickers are a symbol that people who are different, who don’t think, dress, act or love like the majority of other students are just as welcome in our schools.

“A sticker is a small thing, but it is a symbol that we, as educators, will accept and treasure all our students, regardless of their beliefs.

“What is not a small thing is the 45% of the LGBTQ students, almost one in two, who will seriously consider suicide this year.

“This suicide prevention month, I implore you to consider what message the removal of these stickers sends to the at-risk youth, who view them as a reminder that they are valued in our community.”

Jessica Jucusko Wright, a former district educator, told the board: “We need to have systems in place that protect our kids, that they know there are adults they can go to, that they can report to, and that those reports will be heard, that they will not be mocked, that they will not be lost and that action will actually be taken.

“It does not matter how our staff may identify from a religious standpoint. We serve the public and we serve all of the public, regardless how we may feel behind closed doors. It does not matter,” the Land O’ Lakes woman said.

Beverly Ledbetter, a former district teacher, also weighed in:  “We like to think of our schools as a safe place for students to find structure and protection, but there are multiple reasons why a student might not feel accepted or understood at school.

“Safe Spaces helped the students who felt unaccepted for whatever reason regain their sense of belonging, where they can talk to other students who feel the same emotions. Safe Spaces can help those students feel empowered to speak up and receive the support they need to believe and to achieve. It gives them a sense of belonging and support, and not just support from the teacher, but from fellow students who come together as a kind of community.”

Ledbetter added: “A Safe Space sticker on a teacher’s door is a signal that bullying and harassment will not be tolerated.”

Others said the sticker conveyed a tone of acceptance and helped instill confidence in students, who sometimes are unable to be authentically who they are at home.

But Rebecca Yuengling, a frequent critic of the school district had a different point of view.

She spoke against the Safe Space stickers.

“No teacher has the right to tell my child to keep secrets. My child will decide. I will decide. Not the teacher, with my child, in private. They’re my children. I decide what they’ll be. No teacher is going to do that. Nobody in this district is going to do that. You don’t have that right, it’s out of your bounds, and thank God for the laws,” Yuengling said.

Superintendent Browning told those listening: “There’s decisions made by the state and then there’s decisions made locally. This decision, in large part, was made in Tallahassee.

He added: “I guess I wasn’t clear enough when I sent my email to district staff. So, let me see if I can clarify my email to district staff.

“This district has no choice, has no choice, because the law says, under the Parent’s Bill of Rights, that there are no such things as ‘safe spaces,’ as we’re defining safe spaces.

“Teachers are not permitted to have private, personal conversations with students any longer.

“Now, I know that runs counter to a lot of us. It runs counter to a lot of us,” he said.

But the superintendent said those who object to the law need to take their opposition to another venue.

“Who you ought to be talking to, about this law, are members of the Florida Legislature. You need to be talking to the governor of the state,” Browning said.

“Because for anyone to think that this district can pick and choose what laws we’re going to enforce and which laws we’re not going to enforce — that isn’t the way it works.

“Whether you agree or whether you disagree with the law, the law is the law, until it’s overturned by the Legislature or by a court of competent jurisdiction,” Browning said.

“Does this mean that we don’t care, because we’ve taken a sticker off a door? That we do not care about kids that identify as gay, or transgender, or lesbian?

“No, that is not what that means.

“All we want is for teachers to understand is they are prohibited by state law of having those private, personal conversations, with students,” the superintendent said.

School districts, and individual teachers, are subject to potential litigation — and the legal fees that arise — if they violate the law, Browning said.

School board member Alison Crumbley said “I understand the passion here and I understand how people feel, on all sides … But this district went through this for two years.

“Every school board meeting, we were bombarded and harangued and we stood for all of our students,” she said.

Parents and guardians are looking to the board “every single day to protect their students, every single day, regardless of their sexuality, anything.”

She then cited a paragraph in the district’s bullying policy that she believes shows the board’s commitment to providing safe, supportive schools for every student.

“The five of us and the superintendent … we really mean this, for every kid. And I know sometimes it doesn’t feel that way, but we really do.”

Published September 21, 2022